Critical speed of the shaft

Critical speed of a rotating shaft the speed where it becomes dynamically unstable. The frequency of free vibration of a non-rotating shaft is the same as its critical speed. The shaft, because of its own mass, has a critical speed. The ensemble of attachments to a shaft likewise has a critical speed that is much lower than the shafts intrinsic critical speed. For a shaft of uniform diameter, simply supported, critical speed of the shaft will be:

where

m = the mass per unit length, A = cross-sectional area, and = the specific weight.

For an ensemble of attachments, Rayleighs method for lumped masses gives: Wi = the weight of rotating bodies yi = deflection of rotating bodies

where

Critical speed of the shaft

To counter the computation difficulty, as much as the shaft is elastic, we can use influence coefficients. An influence coefficient is the transverse deflection at location i on a shaft due to a unit load at location j on the shaft.

For a simply supported beam with a single unit load, the influence coefficients: where

ij = influence coefficients

For three loads the influence coefficients may be displayed as:

Maxwells reciprocity theorem states that:

ij = ji

Critical speed of the shaft

the deflections of the three points y1, y2, and y3

where

Fi = the weighs attached wi or the centrifugal forces mi2yi

Critical speed of the shaft

To avoid the trivial solution y1 = y2 = y3 = 0, the determinant of the coefficients of y1, y2, and y3 must be zero (eigenvalue problem)

deflection other than zero exists only at three distinct values of , the critical speeds.
Expanding the determinant The three roots of eq. can be expressed as 1/12 , 1/22 , and 1/32 and can be written in the form:

Critical speed of the shaft

Comparing the above equations:

If we had only a single mass m1 alone, the critical speed would be given by:

Similarly for masses m2 and m3 :

If we order the critical speeds such that 1 < 2 < 3, then 1/12 1/22 , and 1/32

Critical speed of the shaft

For n body shaft :

Dunkerleys equation

Critical speed of the shaft

No loads appearing in the Dunkerleys equation, it follows that if each load could be placed at some convenient location transformed into an equivalent load, then the critical speed of an array of loads could be found by summing the equivalent loads, all placed at a single convenient location. For the load at station 1, placed at the center of span, denoted with the subscript c, the equivalent load is found from: